After a quick meal, Mu Tianchen went straight back to the dormitory. Following the handbook Teacher Chazhu had given him, he collected his room key card from the dorm manager on the first floor. It showed that he had been assigned to Room 503.
He took the elevator to the fifth floor and quickly found his room around the corner. Then he used his key card to open the door.
The dormitory was nowhere near as luxurious as most schools back home. Never mind that it was a single room; the interior was decorated in a neoclassical style, combining modern and classical elements to create a fresh, elegant feel.
The only drawback was that the room was just four square meters. Still, it was more than enough for one person.
After puttering around for a while, Mu Tianchen lay on his bed and played with his phone.
Meanwhile, over at Ryuen's—
Ryuen had just finished getting his class in line when he opened his phone and saw a notification for a friend request from an unknown account.
He accepted without a second thought. So what if it's a trap? The more dangerous it is, the more excited I get.
When Mu Tianchen saw that Ryuen had accepted his request, he immediately sent over the recording and transfer records he'd obtained earlier.
Ryuen opened the recording from their chat history. He frowned and immediately understood what had happened.
"Shi Qi, get over here!" Ryuen shouted at Shi Qi, who was standing guard by the classroom door.
"Huh? What do you need, Big Brother Ryuen?"
Shi Qi hurried over to Ryuen and crouched beside him, waiting for his orders. He was afraid of accidentally making Ryuen angry again.
When Ryuen had been getting the class in line, Shi Qi had refused to submit and fought him. Now his whole body was still aching.
It wasn't that Ryuen was especially good at fighting; Shi Qi simply refused to give in. Other people stopped when they got tired, but Ryuen was different. Every time he was knocked down, he quickly got back up again and again, as if he had endless energy.
Who could put up with that? Even Albert, the strongest-looking and best fighter in the class, had been brought to heel by Ryuen's approach. Now, apart from a few exceptions, most of the class was afraid of him.
"You useless piece of trash! What do you call this?"
Ryuen slapped his phone down hard on the desk and kicked Shi Qi. The other students couldn't help showing their fear.
They'd only just handed over their points under Ryuen's pressure. What was making him fly off the handle now? They were afraid he'd come after one of them next.
Shi Qi slowly got back to his feet and picked up the phone from the desk. Fortunately, the phone the school had issued was sturdy; even after Ryuen had slammed it down, it was still in one piece. He lowered his head to check the messages, and his eyes instantly widened as cold sweat ran down his face.
Ryuen had been too busy getting the class in line to handle anything else, so he'd explained what to do and sent Shi Qi to take care of it. He hadn't expected him to mess up something so simple.
"Big Brother Ryuen, I was wrong. Please forgive me."
Shi Qi set down the phone, realizing he'd screwed things up. He fell to his knees and begged.
"I told you to do one simple thing with my phone, and you still let them get evidence. You didn't delete the transfer records, and you even left them your friend request and your name. Unbelievably stupid!"
"I... I was afraid they wouldn't handle things properly for you, so I went to meet them myself. As for that friend request, those upperclassmen were afraid we might really beat them up, so they asked us to cover their medical bills..."
"..."
"Forget it. Get back to your post. If you pull this again, I won't let you off!"
"Thank you, Big Brother Ryuen!"
Shi Qi kowtowed several times on the floor to thank Ryuen for his great mercy, then went back to standing guard.
Once he'd collected himself, Shi Qi couldn't help feeling a wave of relief. When he'd first seen what was on the phone, he'd even wondered if Ryuen might kill him, given his temper!
Although this was a school, Ryuen showed no mercy to anyone in the class who refused to submit. He usually forced them into line with violence. The others turned a blind eye, and no one was willing—or dared—to tell the school.
Ryuen picked up the phone from the desk again and replied to the other person: [Name your price!]
Mu Tianchen wasn't surprised in the least when he saw the message. Since Ryuen had used points to buy off those upperclassmen, he would certainly think of using the same method to keep "him" quiet.
But how many points should he ask for?
He'd spent sixty thousand himself, so he definitely wasn't going to take a loss. After thinking it over, he suddenly felt that what he was doing was a real scummy move. So he'd ask for 360,000 points—just for good luck. If Ryuen refused, he could always lower his demands.
So he sent Ryuen a message: [360,000 points. Transfer them to me, and I'll delete everything.]
[That's quite a price you're asking. Fine. How can I trust you?]
Mu Tianchen had figured that anyone who'd seen through the school's rules this early and already taken action wouldn't be simple. But he was still surprised that Ryuen would agree to such a high price.
After all, everyone had apparently been given 100,000 points. Including the points he'd already spent to hire the upperclassmen, 360,000 made 390,000 in total. That would take at least four people to put together. Or had Ryuen simply used force or brains to collect all the points from everyone in his class?
It was only the first day. If he'd used brains, he'd need time to earn people's trust. So it was more likely he'd relied on force.
Thinking of that, Mu Tianchen couldn't help admiring him.
He wasn't afraid of Ryuen on the strength of force alone, but someone who'd thought of stirring up trouble in another class right from the start clearly wasn't stupid either. This time, Mu Tianchen might have gotten lucky and caught them with evidence, earning himself a reward. Next time, he might not get such a good opportunity.
Mu Tianchen decided to test him first.
[You've probably figured out how the school works too, right? The school's system can't possibly fail to keep records of a transfer this large. If I don't keep my word, you can report me to the school. You understand that if things get to that point, neither of us will benefit.]
[Of course, what I have isn't much of a threat to you. After all, your best-case scenario was to use the cameras near the supermarket to take pictures of Sudo fighting, but he didn't get the chance to act for some other reason, so you didn't get the result you wanted.]
[Even if I hand this over to the school, the punishment will only be a slap on the wrist. But if you don't pay, I'll report it anyway.]
On the surface, those few lines seemed to leave Ryuen to decide whether or not to hand over the points.
But Mu Tianchen was actually using them to test whether Ryuen was the leader of his class, and whether he could take a broad view when dealing with problems.
Without knowing how the school would handle this evidence, even a seemingly minor punishment could lead to consequences beyond anyone's expectations.
If the school chose to deal with it publicly by issuing an official reprimand, that would cause the greatest damage, even if they didn't deduct any Class Points or individual points.
Mu Tianchen figured that since they'd already targeted even the worst class, Class D, they would definitely target the upper-ranked classes too.
If their operation against Class D was made public, it would directly alert the higher-ranked classes, and they would be on their guard. Class C would lose many opportunities if it acted again.
So a leader who was looking at the big picture would never be willing to take that risk.
He's already seen through all that?
Ryuen was a little surprised by the message. It wasn't entirely correct, but the overall reasoning was sound. The other person had successfully piqued his interest.
[Haha, interesting!]
After sending the message, Ryuen transferred the points right away. He hadn't finished getting his class in line yet, but he still had 360,000 points.
Ryuen had considered not paying and letting the other person report him to the school. For something like this, the school would at most issue an official reprimand, or, if it was serious, deduct some Class Points.
But Ryuen didn't want to expose his actions so soon. At this stage, information was far more valuable than points. He didn't mind taking the loss; there would be plenty of chances to earn points later, but information wasn't so easy to gather.
[Who are you?]
Although he knew someone as smart as the other person wouldn't reveal their identity so easily, Ryuen sent the message anyway, hoping to test him. An opponent lurking in the shadows was often the most frightening kind.
As expected? When Mu Tianchen saw that the points had arrived, he'd already reached a conclusion about the test. He was about to put his phone down when another message from Ryuen came in.
He wasn't stupid enough to reveal his identity. Just then, he thought of a line from a Japanese tokusatsu show he'd been especially fond of, and replied:
[I'm just a passing Kamen Rider!]
After sending the message, Mu Tianchen immediately deleted Ryuen from his friends list, bringing things to a perfect close.
"..."
Ryuen was speechless. He'd watched that Kamen Rider show before, but who still said such a cringey line in high school?
He even wondered whether the other person had just happened to pass by and stumbled onto the truth by pure luck, or whether someone else had put him up to it. Maybe Ryuen had overestimated him?
Of course, years of experience told him that was impossible!
So he tried to send another message, but a red exclamation mark appeared in the chat box, followed by a notification:
'You are no longer friends with this person. Please check whether their identity is suspicious!'
Ryuen: "..."
Mu Tianchen glanced again at the 395,000 points on his phone and couldn't help grinning beneath the covers...
Before you continue